After Asphalt & Rubberbroke the news about the MV Agusta purchase last week, many of the details about Harley-Davidson’s sale of MV Agusta to the Castiglioni were known or rumored at the time of the purchase’s announcement later in the day; however the exact figures and terms of the agreement were not officially known. Having filed the appropriate forms with the SEC, Harley-Davidson (a publicly traded company) has had to disclose the terms of MV Agusta’s sale, which don’t paint a favorable picture for the Milwaukee brand, but show how Castiglioni “bought” his company back despite bids coming from other parties.

As we reported earlier, Castiglioni purchased MV Agusta for the nominal sale price of €1, but digging into the terms of the agreement, it’s Harley-Davidson who is really paying out the big dollar amounts. In their agreement Harley-Davidson agrees to leave MV Agusta with a dowry of roughly €20 million (+/- minus fees and profits incurred), with €7 million of that cash infusion coming up-front. The rest of the sum will be paid in escrow with equal monthly installments, over a 12 month period starting on August 20th, 2010.

In exchange for this cash, Castiglioni has agreed to waive any earn-out payments he would have received as a minority shareholder in MV Agusta. Owning 5% of MV Agusta before the sale, we can only guess as to how much this payout potentially would have been, but we do know from the sale agreement that Harley-Davidson agreed to pay for the earn-outs of Enrico D’Onofrio (Harley-Davidson appointed Managing Director of MV Agusta) & Eugene Guizzetti (MV Agusta Executive).

Harley-Davidson also agreed to pick up most of the tab on the costs and fees associated with the sale of MV Agusta, most of which do not apply to the €20 million sum Harley-Davidson agreed to pay. In exchange Castiglioni agreed to not take any dividends or unusually large payments out of MV Agusta, meaning the funds given to the company should remain for company use. Castiglioni also agreed to absolve Harley-Davidson of any legal proceedings and liability the Italian businessman had been pursuing related to the sale of MV Agusta, which left unresolved would have tied up the purchase of MV Agusta for years.

The lawsuit filed in Italian courts by Castiglioni is certainly the linchpin in this purchase agreement, as any lengthy legal proceeding would have cost Harley-Davidson considerably, regardless of the final judgment. As Harley-Davidson paid out its lawyers, the opportunity for any profit in the sale would have dwindled over the course of the legal battle, which also would have confounded Harley-Davidson, Inc.’s desire to hurriedly divest MV Agusta from its holdings. Knowing that Harley-Davidson was in-between a rock and hard place, Castiglioni seemingly has exploited his position with MV Agusta, and as we see in the terms of the sale, the Italian businessman was able to get considerable concessions out of Harley-Davidson.

In total Harley-Davidson has written off $162.7 million (net in taxes) in its two year ownership of MV Agusta, making this an expensive outing for the American company in the Italian premium sport bike market. However this failed experiment in motorcycling accounts for only roughly 69¢ per share of Harley-Davidson stock, or roughly 2% of the stock’s current market price (which is how much the stock dropped during the announcement of the divesture).

With MV Agusta now back in Italian hands, all eyes will be on Castiglioni and his new CEO Massimo Brodi to see how they turn the company around.

As a life-long Red Sox fan, I can only hope that the Curse of Erik Buell hangs on HD’s head for several generations.

Maas

Our American corporations are the undisputed kings of pissing money away.

Mark

I’m hoping that HD eventually becomes a privately owned company, with a large portion of it employee owned. This company needs to be run by competent people interested in the long term future of the brand and not by corporate bean counters beholden to the Wall St. mindset of maximizing short term profit at any cost.

joe

If you took clothing and sticker sales away from hd I wonder what their stock would be worth?

Joe R

My pea brain is still struggling with the killing of Buell.

Joe R

Oh yeah, and the original purchase of MV.

Fernando patrignoni

In what moment the hd managers felt smarters than claudio castiglioni????!!!???

joe

Smart clearly doesn’t matter. To them, their large checks justify their actions, and their outlook on the future is their colon.

http://ridethetorquecurve.blogspot.com/ hoyt

your pic kind of looks like an MV trike, which would be about as bent as the last 2 years of HD management.

Keith Wandell and the HD Board continue to astound everyone with their brilliant decisions. Apparantly their management skills are as good as HD’s innovative engineering

buellracerx

congratulations, indeed, Keith. This is why you get paid the big bucks, right??? good thing you really know the motorcycle market…

1 murdered american sportbike brand

3 factories full of scared union workers (not to mention the test sites)

1 fiasco of a sale of the italian sportbike brand

and still, 30-some-odd cruisers (some thinly disguised) making up the model lineup…way to be diverse.

btw, EX ELF, I wish you knew what you were talking about. Then this comment board wouldn’t have to put up with your blatant ignorance. I know HD engineering. It’s good.

http://top-car-wallpapers.com/ Smith

sexy motorcycle

Tom

buellracerx says, “btw, EX ELF, I wish you knew what you were talking about. Then this comment board wouldn’t have to put up with your blatant ignorance. I know HD engineering. It’s good.”

Ahem…..good at WHAT exactly?

unclewill

Harley killed Buell because Buells didn’t sell – I know, I test rode three Buells two years ago when I was shopping for a bike. The XB9 and XB12 nakeds were smooth on the road but at idle shook unbearably. I also tried a bucking, snorting 1125R which had serious fueling issues right off the demo truck! Is this the good HD engineering you’re talking about? It was enough to send me packing…

unclewill

I also test rode the MV Agusta Brutale and found it to be a wild ride – very fast and fun but heavy vibes, noisy and a real handful to ride. Another bike crossed off the list. I don’t think I am alone in passing on buying both Buell and MV Agusta as both brands struggled/struggle to sell bikes in the US. I would assume that this is why Harley cut their losses with these brands. As much as motorcyclists would like to think that heritage and tradition play a part, in the end this is a business selling products and when times are lean, its time to trim the fat.